Page - 22 - in The Future of Software Quality Assurance

22 G.Bath • Security – Are communications protected from security threats (e.g. man in the middle attacks)? – Canamobiledevicebemisusedbyunauthorizedusers (e.g.distributeddenial of serviceattacks)? • Interoperability – Canwe besureourapplicationrunson thedevicesandversions intended? – Can the required different operating systems, browsers and platforms be supported? – Canweeasilyupgradeorswapdifferenthardwareandsoftwarecomponents? • Reliability – Can thesystemhandleawide rangeofdifferentexceptionconditions, suchas loss of connection, intermittent signals and hardware or software failures in particular systemcomponents? Justconsiderthetestingeffortthatwouldberequiredtotestalloftheseindividual characteristics and provide answers to all those questions. Although it might be desirable to cover everything, this is rarely a practical proposition in terms of available budget and timescales. The challenge for the tester therefore comes in helping todecidehowtoprioritize testing. Competencies requiredof theNG Tester: • Identify the principal risks associated with applications and systems using connecteddevices. • Determinea test strategy tomitigatea wide rangeof technical risks. • Design and perform tests which focus on the particular non-functional quality characteristicsofapplicationsandsystemswhichuseconnecteddevices • Apply appropriate tools (e.g. simulators and emulators) to testing applications whichuseconnecteddevices. 6.3 TestingArtificial Intelligence (AI)Applications Testing AI applications focusses principally on the ability of the application’s algorithmstomatch (“fit”) requests for informationwith theapplication’savailable knowledgebase.Testing focusseson twomainaspects: • Detection of situationswhere the applicationcannotmatch informationrequests at all and thereforeprovidesno response(underfitting).This is an indication that the matchingalgorithmmaybe tooprecise.